Asian Group Meeting, 20th March 2007, A.L.G.

Report of Asian Group Meeting
20 February 2007
16-17h

This meeting had been arranged on the request of Ambassador Makarim Wibisono, Permanent Representative of Indonesia to the UN, in order to brief the Asian Group on the High Level Mission of the Human Rights Council to Sudan.

The ambassador of Indonesia announced that he decided to quit the High Level Assessment Mission on Darfour.
The main reason for this decision was that the government of Sudan was not cooperating with the Mission at all. The members of the Mission, still waiting in Adis Abeba to get the visa to enter Sudan, learned that they would not be authorized to enter Sudan and that they should go to Tchad instead.
Under those circumstances, the ambassador decided to go back to Geneva.

Some ambassadors then took the floor to express their support and understanding for his decision.
The ambassador of the Republic of Korea and the ambassador of Japan pointed out that those kinds of issues will be a big question for the Council in the future.
The ambassadors of China and Iran added that the Mission could not fulfill its task because of its high politicization and, as a consequence of this, its composition. They argued that the Mission should have involved more members of the Council and the country concerned.
The ambassador of Syria also regreted the high politicization and pointed out that, regarding the “measures” taken in the Special Sessions on Palestine, there had been also no outcome because of such bureaucracies.

For the ambassador of Indonesia, it was very important that the Asian Group stood behind him in his decision. As there was no objection to it, the members of the Asian Group, decided that the facilitator of the conference would write an letter to the President of the Human Rights Council confirming “officially” the support of the Asian Group.